Disk drives are widely used in computers and other electronic devices for the storage and retrieval of data. A major goal among many disk drive manufacturers is to continue to increase the amount of data that can be stored on a recording medium while still maintaining data integrity and disk drive reliability. Lowering the flying height of a head over a recording medium can increase the areal density. However, there have been problems with lowering a flying height of a head in that damage may be caused due to contact between the head and the recording medium.
Increasing a magnetic storage density of a recording medium requires increasing a number of data bits per square inch on the recording medium. Placing a read structure and a write structure of a head closer to a recording medium allows for increasing the magnetic storage density of the recording medium. This is because a magnetic field detected by a read element from a portion of the recording medium under the read element increases exponentially as the read element is moved closer to the recording medium. Moving the read element closer to the recording medium allows for compensating for lower flux levels provided from smaller areas on the recording medium where a given bit of data is recorded. Also, a strength of magnetic flux from the write structure to the recording medium and an accuracy of directing magnetic flux to a specific portion of the recording medium may be improved the closer the write structure is to the recording medium.
However, placing a head closer to a recording medium may increase a probability that the head will contact the recording medium when flying over the recording medium. Such contact between the head and the recording medium may damage the head and the recording medium. As a consequence, disk drive reliability may be adversely affected by contact between the head and the recording medium due to low flying heights of the head over the recording medium. Accordingly, there is a need to address factors affecting flying height of heads to enable low flying heights while minimizing contact between the head and recording medium.